by CC Bridges
I closed my eyes and tilted my head to give him better access. Lou brushed his fingers across the front of my jeans, just a whisper of a touch across my fly. My cock twitched in response. He went for the button, and I didn’t stop him. I didn’t want to.
“All right?” Lou’s face brushed against mine, the stubble on his cheek causing delightful friction. Fuck, I wanted to feel that between my thighs.
“Yeah….” My mind went blank as he unzipped me and slid his hand beneath my boxers and took hold of my erection. After this long, the fire had been stoked between us, so feeling his fingers on me was like a volcano erupting.
He stroked me, careful touches, learning what I liked. When I moaned, he repeated the movement until I could barely keep standing. In fact, I fell back against him, and he staggered, keeping us both upright.
I was being selfish. I wanted to feel him, learn the shape of his cock, see what he looked like when he moaned. I pushed away and turned to face him, then fell to my knees, my jeans caught halfway down my thighs.
“Nick, you don’t have to.”
“Shut up.” I looked up at him and smiled. He didn’t protest as I unzipped him and pulled down his briefs. Later I’d have to see how that ass moved in nothing but his underwear. Right now I needed to get my hands around his dick.
And yes, I needed both hands, because this boy was thick. It was flushed, a shade darker than his normal skin tone. A bit of fluid leaked from the top. I had to taste it, let him fill my mouth.
Lou didn’t groan when I got my mouth around him. He let out a sound, something between a hiss and a cry that was adorable and so much him. I grinned around my mouthful before I got down to the serious business of sucking cock.
He tasted like… well, like Lou, like Italian spices and the warm wind on the beach. He smelled like sweat and musk, and I needed more, needed to get closer to breathe him in. I reached down to touch myself, but Lou touched my head.
“No, I’ll take care of you later.” The words were as much a threat as a promise, and I moaned, my cock twitching in response to that.
I put my heart into sucking him, working the base of his dick with one hand, tugging and rolling his sac with the other. He curled his fingers in my hair, and I loved every moment of it. When I heard that hitch in his breathing, I knew he was close. I pulled off and caught his come in the palm of my hand. Didn’t want to make a mess my first time at his apartment, did I?
And then, oh yes, did Lou keep his promise. He all but pounced on me, pushing me back down on to the floor as he got between my legs and spread them as far as my twisted jeans would allow. His mouth was hot and wet, and as he sucked, he freakin’ hummed, and it felt damn good. Too good to last.
I might have shouted a bit as I came. I flushed, worried that they could hear me downstairs. “Was I too loud? I feel like I was too loud.”
Lou crawled up my body and stared at me with a dopey grin. “Don’t worry. There’s so much noise in the restaurant they couldn’t hear you if you screamed.”
I reached up and tugged him down for a kiss. “Is that what I have to look forward to? Screaming?”
He ducked his head and shrugged. “Maybe?”
“Okay, this is where you say something suave, like, ‘You can count on it.’” I tilted his chin up so I could view his gorgeous dark eyes. Lou seemed a little embarrassed. Maybe he was one of those guys who couldn’t talk about sex. That we would definitely have to work on. There wasn’t much I didn’t talk about.
Lou kissed me again and said, “You can count on it!”
We both ended up laughing. It made cleaning up a little difficult, but we managed to straighten up our clothes and the mess we’d made. I got the litter box squared away in the very tiny bathroom. Lou had to go back to work, and I followed, taking my laptop with me for entertainment as I sat in the corner to wait for him.
That didn’t happen for a while, because I ended up meeting Lou’s family—two sisters, one older, one younger, and one brother, older, his brother’s wife and their two kids, and I was pretty darn sure a third was on the way. They looked alike, with dark wavy hair and matching eyes. And they all used expressive hand gestures when they talked.
The entire family took part in the cooking and serving, because the restaurant was packed. I guess everyone wanted one last hurrah before the damn hurricane blasted us all away. It got late. I ended up going upstairs without Lou and falling asleep on the couch, the kitten curled on my chest.
Chapter 8
THE WIND rattled the windows with violent force, making me wish we’d boarded up the ones in the apartment too. Every so often an especially loud gust would slam with a bang, causing me to jump. Wind shouldn’t sound like that. The staccato kept up all morning and into the afternoon, a harsh sound without rhythm. It got so bad Lou decided to check on the windows downstairs. After his family had all gone home last night, it was up to him to make sure the restaurant didn’t blow away.
I sat on the couch to wait with the TV playing the news. I had my laptop open next to me, but I hadn’t been able to concentrate with that noise. They’d canceled classes for the day, and theoretically I knew what I should be working on next, but the numbers in my accounting problems seemed pointless. Who cared about spending variance when the house might be falling down?
Oddly enough, there hadn’t been much rain. I’d expected it—you know, hurricane and all. But instead of torrents of water, all I could hear was the damn wind, howling like a fucked-up werewolf. I put my hands on my ears, willing it to go away. I didn’t want to hear about high tide and the storm surge. I wanted it to stop and everything to be fine again.
Nibbles walked between my legs, batting at my jeans demanding attention. He didn’t seem too bothered. Weren’t animals supposed to have some sort of sixth sense about storms and shit? Maybe he knew he was safe here? I reached down to scratch behind his ears, trying to focus on the way the soft fur felt beneath my fingers.
Lou came up from downstairs and closed the door behind him. “Windows still boarded up. I didn’t think we needed it, but it’s looking pretty bad out there.”
“I’ve never heard anything like this.” My voice trembled, and I swallowed to try to calm down. But another slam of the wind had me cringing in response. Would this never stop? I rubbed my arms, trying to get warm. It wasn’t cold, not really, but it felt like all the hairs on my skin were tingling.
Lou looked through the front window, flicking the blinds up for a moment. His lips thinned into a single line, and if Lou was bothered, I knew it couldn’t be good out there. He let the blinds fall before he turned around, grabbed the remote, and shut off the TV.
“It’s time to stop listening.”
“How?” I closed the laptop, giving up any pretense of getting work done.
“Do you want to see my vinyl collection?” Lou gestured to a large wooden cabinet along the wall that I’d noticed but hadn’t wondered too much about. He knelt and pulled open a latch to reveal a turntable and rows of records behind the door.
I went over to take a closer look. Too bad I couldn’t think up an innuendo about his record collection. Since our encounter last night, I’d been hypersensitive, wondering when to proposition Lou again. Lou had seemed shy after sex, and I wanted to see exactly what kind of moves I could get out of this good-old Italian boy.
“You weren’t kidding about the vintage stuff,” I said instead, pulling out an Elvis Costello album. He had a nice collection of classics including, yes, a few Bruce Springsteen records.
Lou set up something with a good beat. “There’s something about the sound that you can’t get with digital.”
“Scratchy and slightly muffled?” I continued to flip through the collection, caught up in the music he chose. The woman’s voice floated through the room, deep and earthy, and it made my arms break out in goose bumps. He had a point about the sound.
I waved an album cover at him. “What the heck is this?” There was a man in drag on the cover, and everyone was dressed in old-tim
ey wedding clothes.
Lou let out a laugh. “I forgot I had that. Oh, man, Monica is going to be pissed when she finds out. We grew up with this. Here.”
He swapped out the records on the turntable and dropped the needle in the middle of the record. Apparently that was how they skipped to songs in the days before iPods.
A rousing beat emerged, and a man belted out in Italian, but what was most remarkable was Lou started to dance. He kicked up his feet as he darted from side to side, waving his hands in the air.
“C’mon.” He gestured, and I joined him—well, I kinda hopped around in time to the music, because I could not match the intensity of his footwork.
I ran out of breath and bent over, hands on my knees as I tried to laugh and breathe at the same time. Lou did a little spin, and then he too collapsed into giggles.
“That was…,” I started to say, but could only gasp out the rest, “…hilarious.”
“We’ll need to work on your stamina.” Lou helped me up and leaned in for a kiss. Was that an honest-to-goodness innuendo? I’d have congratulated him if my mouth wasn’t full of him—his tongue, his taste, his scent. God, I could never tire of kissing him.
And that was when the lights went out.
The record squealed to a stop, and I heard Nibbles meow in confusion. Lou pulled away, and I held still until he clicked a flashlight into being from all the way in the kitchen. I was impressed that he’d found his way over there without bumping into anything.
“I almost forgot about the hurricane going on.”
“That was kinda the point.” Lou left the flashlight on the counter and went rummaging in the cabinets. He came up with some candles in glass jars and went about lighting them.
I went hunting for the kitten, who emerged from behind the couch and let me pet him. The wind continued its barrage against the windows, and without the music, it sounded like a cacophony. Now poor Nibbles seemed disturbed by the wind. He hopped up on the couch and pawed at the homemade blanket thrown over the back. I took it and formed a little ball with it in the center of the couch, and Nibbles curled up inside it. There, at least he felt better.
I jumped when I felt Lou’s hands on my shoulders. He’d come up behind me, and I hadn’t even noticed. “Fuck.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ll have to find another way to distract you.” Even in the dim light the candles cast, I could see his gentle smile, and I melted.
“Please.”
He took my hand and led me to his bedroom. I hadn’t gotten a chance to peek in here since I’d crashed spectacularly on the couch. With the flashlight Lou flicked on, I really couldn’t make out much except for the very large bed in the center of the room. Well, Lou was a big guy, what was I expecting—a twin bed? The image of him in a tiny twin with his legs hanging off the end made me giggle.
Lou set the flashlight down on the end table, and it gave off enough light for me not to bump into anything. Still, the entire room was cast in shadows, and when Lou stalked toward me, his face hidden, I felt my heart race.
He touched my face and stroked my jaw, reminding me that I hadn’t shaved either, though my own light stubble did not compare at all to his sexy scruff. Then he kissed me, and the heat rose between us again. Last night wasn’t a fluke. I tugged him closer, wanting, needing to feel his body flush against mine, to feel it when he hardened against me.
Lou owned my mouth. He bit at my lips, sucked on my tongue, made it impossible for me to do anything but feel. I could only hold on and gasp for breath, my cock growing thicker by the moment.
“Let me….” I didn’t know what I was even asking for.
But Lou seemed to know. He pulled away and peeled off his shirt, and I tugged at mine quickly. Lou unzipped his jeans and pushed them down, all while holding my gaze. I was too mesmerized to do anything but watch as his boxers joined his jeans and his cock sprang free. It looked even bigger with the shadows surrounding us, and I ached to touch it again, to maybe get my mouth around it.
“Let me help you.” Lou moved like some sort of sex ninja. He was on his knees and unzipping my pants before I could even speak.
He nuzzled me as he made short work of removing my pants. With short teasing motions, he pressed his tongue against me, just enough to keep me on my toes. And then Lou slipped his hands between my thighs to part them as he moved to lave behind my sac.
His stubble brushed against my skin, and I trembled at my fantasy come to life. When he touched my hole, I cried out and nearly lost my footing. Why weren’t we using that perfectly good bed a few feet away?
“Can I fuck you?” he asked.
Oh, that was why. “Do you have condoms? Lube?” I realized in a moment of panic that I did indeed leave my stash in the bedroom back at the rental house.
Lou laughed. “Of course. I stocked up before the storm. That’s what they mean when they say to prepare beforehand, right?”
“You’re amazing.”
I’d like to say it was easy after that, that I didn’t trip over our pile of clothing in my eagerness to get into the bed. But that would be a dirty lie. At least it made Lou laugh and broke some of the tension. It wasn’t quite as intense when I got on my belly, using Lou’s pillow to support my hips.
He put a hand on my back at first, a heavy weight that grounded me before moving any farther. Lou kissed along my spine, soothing me till I felt like I was going to melt into the bed. Then, and only then, did he spread my thighs apart.
I curled my fingers into the sheets, but I really shouldn’t have worried. Lou prepped me with as much care as making one of his special dishes in the restaurant. I felt his fingers move inside me, stretching my body without causing pain. And then he reached so deep inside me I cried out in shock.
“Easy.” He kissed my tailbone. “Ready?”
“Mmmmm.” I had lost the ability to speak, which always seemed to happen when he got his hands on me.
He entered me, and it was almost too fast before I was filled with him. Lou got up on his knees and brought me back with him, positioning me to straddle his thighs. His strength kept me balanced, and I reveled in being manhandled like that. He had one arm wrapped around my chest, holding me in place, and the other around one leg, and then he rocked his hips like a porn star and fucked me so hard I saw stars.
Wish I was kidding with that last bit, but seriously, I couldn’t see a damn thing. All I could do was feel and breathe, and just be as he took me. The scent of our mingled musk filled the room, along with some of the vanilla from the still-burning candles. I felt owned, and I rocked into each thrust, needing it.
Lou shifted his grip, fitting one hand around my cock and stroking without rhythm. I didn’t care; it was enough after everything, and I was ready to go off like a rocket. I gasped and came into his hand.
That was when he pushed me back down on my hands and knees and really went to town. I scrambled to grab on to something, anything, but there was nothing to grab on to. The only thing I could do was lie there and take it. And I loved every moment of it.
Lou let out a grunt, and with one last thrust, came.
For a moment, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feel of his weight on me. Then Lou shifted. “Wait here. Let me get a towel.”
It was nice to be taken care of, to let him wipe me down with such attentive motions. God, I loved his hands. I melted into the sheets, floating on a postorgasmic haze. Lou climbed in next to me, and I rolled into him, content to be the little spoon.
I dozed off, feeling safe in his arms.
Sometime later the wind woke me, breaking into my sleep like a thief. I startled awake to find Lou still wrapped around me and the sheets drawn up to our waists. I sat up, suddenly worried about the candles.
“Nick?” Lou stirred.
“Sorry,” I said, feeling silly. “Remembered the candles.”
“I blew them out while you were sleeping.” He yawned. “What time is it?”
“I don’t know.” My phone was in the other room
somewhere, and of course, no power meant no comforting digital glow of an alarm clock. It felt like we were in some postapocalyptic cocoon. Me and Lou against the world.
I lay back down, and he turned into me, tracing the lines of my shoulder with his free hand. “Are you ever going to tell me the real reason you moved down here?”
“What do you mean?” I stilled. Thoughts of sleep fled as his words started my heart pounding.
“I mean, what were you running from?”
I closed my eyes, but that didn’t help any. Darkness was dark, no matter where I looked, even inside. “I told everyone it was because I failed a class.” The words came out of me in a low whisper, as if I was afraid who would hear. But it was only me and Lou in this bed, and I wanted him to know. “I mean, that was true. It’s a fuck-ton cheaper to retake it here.”
“But that’s not the full story.” Lou continued to stroke my arm, his touch soothing, but not arousing.
“It’s part of it.” Didn’t know if I was agreeing or clarifying. “Like most stories, it begins with a guy.” Fuck. I never wanted to think about Jace again, never mind talk about him.
“Is this someone I’m going to have to beat up? Because I’m down with that.”
I laughed, and it broke the knot that had formed in my chest. “I’d love to see that, yes.” I shifted in the bed, turning to face Lou. Even though I couldn’t see him, it felt better this way. “Jace was a friend. I had a crush on him. I thought he was straight. Then we ended up fucking for an entire semester, but he didn’t want anyone to know about it….”
“Shit,” Lou said.
Complete understatement, but yeah. “Typical bullshit—I thought we were dating. He decides to look for another fuck buddy, and I catch him…. It’s not even the cheating. I thought we were friends. I thought I knew exactly where I stood, but then nothing made sense anymore. When Devon invited me down here for the summer, I felt peace, you know? I knew I couldn’t go back, not until….”
“Until?” Lou prompted.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.